Temper, and Time
by SubRosa7
Summary: Prince Legolas and his powerful father don't always agree. The dwarves' Quest to oust the Dragon Smaug has become one of those times.


Title: Temper, and Time

Series: Desperate Hours: Tales of the Greenwood  
Disclaimer: All recognizable elements are Tolkien's

Summary: A little ficlet inspired by a speculative spoiler about Thranduil and Legolas being at odds at some point during the later movies, which made me wonder why that might be.

A/N: This story takes place in the King's Hall in Greenwood, but it is set around the time in "The Hobbit" when Gandalf, the dwarves and Bilbo Baggins are in Imladris, taking council with Elrond. Theli is my OC. He appears in others of my stories posted on AO3.

**Temper, and Time**

"Did you trip?" Theli asked, dabbing ointment on a cut on his Prince's face.

"No." Legolas denied, gritting his teeth at the slight pain and the greater sting of the powerful unguent.

"Sorry." Theli offered, even though he really wasn't. The joys of being the most junior royal healer did sometimes include getting woken in the middle of the night to tend to a battered Greenwood royal, but that did NOT usually mean being startled into wakefulness by a sheepish heir to the throne at two in the morning.

"So," the healer began again, determined to get to the truth of this matter, "You and your father were at it again- don't gape at me, ernil-nin, everyone in the Hall knows that, you weren't exactly being quiet."

"Adar was." Legolas murmured, resentful and fighting hard not to be.

Theli softened slightly. "Yes, he does tend to ice rather than rage, at times." Fixing Legolas with a stern look as he moved on to another cut on the Prince's shoulder, Theli continued, "So one of you decided it would be a bright idea to spar..."

"That part was mutual." Legolas offered. After a moment, he sighed, and added, "We had a few spare hours. We often do spar, of a third day eve. Normally, it is good...tonight, we had already argued, and there were...sharp edges."

"But none that would cut you like this." Theli countered. He was a soldier as well as a healer, and Legolas had once been under his command. The Prince was a graceful and talented fighter, and skilled for his age. Lithe like a cat and light like a bird, Legolas was unlikely to trip, and Thranduil was unlikely to hurt his son. Even if Legolas had dodged when Thranduil expected him to duck, the King probably could have - and would have- pulled his blow. No matter how angry he was.

"Father won. He ALWAYS does." Legolas murmured, sadly resigned.

Theli sighed, seeing for a moment the dedicated young elf who always strove to be the heir his father needed. Thranduil could be a hard act to follow, although Legolas had his strengths as well. Many of them. Ecthelion would far, far rather bring unwelcome news to Legolas, in fact. Oh, he'd want the King apprised of it. Thranduil was brilliant when he applied himself to a problem, if cuttingly so. But the King's greatest flaw was probably his temper, in Theli's opinion. And Legolas had riled that, and royally so, this evening. In Theli's village they would have called it 'poking the bear.' He thought that perhaps he should caution his Prince about how to go about managing the King's moods, but the truth of it was that Legolas was normally far better at that than Theli. And the young Prince seemed to have already realized that he had bungled the matter badly.

Seeing how despondent Legolas was, Theli tried to cheer him. "Don't be discouraged, tithen-Las. After all, your father is one of the most skilled swordsman of this age. Losing to him is no shame." Somehow that didn't seem to have the desired effect, so Theli offered bracingly, "If it's any comfort, I think that you may be a better archer than he."

That startled Legolas into a laugh. Theli smiled back, and pressed, "So, what sharp edge cut into your cheek, and your shoulder, and your side, then, hmm?" Theli really hoped for an answer. He didn't want to have to go to Master Healer Nestorion, or worse yet, the King, and tattle. But he would, if he had to. As a general matter, Legolas' safety was something which Theli valued more highly than the Prince's right to privacy.

Legolas blushed. "I, umm, threw a practice sword at the wall." Theli stared at him, bemused and appalled.

"It, umm, bounced. So I threw it again, harder." Legolas continued, "Then...sparks, and chips of stone wall and chipped sword flew at me. In short, it wasn't the brightest way to vent my temper I've ever found." The Prince concluded lamely.

Theli opened his mouth, and then closed it again. For a moment he wasn't sure what to say. And then, because this was Legolas and not Thranduil and Legolas had a better sense of humor about these things, Theli said what popped into his head, "Does throwing things when matters don't go your way run in your family?"

"What?" Legolas replied, confused. "No. I mean, Adar doesn't, and I can't imagine Thalion ever. And I can't remember Nana or Thandrin or the twins ever throwing things when they didn't get their way."

"Mmm." Theli said, in part because he did remember very vividly Thandrin's youthful tantrums, and even Lithidhren's rarer but in some ways more dramatic histrionics. But mostly because he remembered his young King having thrown healing potions back at him, on more than one occasion. Once, Thranduil's doing so had actually revealed a long-running prank of Theli's, which had been unfortunate in many ways, although it had succeeded in putting the King in a much better mood.

Legolas eyed his healer and sometimes-sergeant, intrigued by Theli's evasion. But then his forest-green eyes darkened again, and he whispered painfully, "I don't like dwarves, either. Not generally. But this time, he's WRONG, Theli."

Theli should have just said, "Mmm" again. He knew that he should have. But he owed Legolas almost as much as he owed Thranduil. More, in some ways. And Theli had never been good at failing to speak his mind.

"Between you, me, and the chipped wall and sword, I think so too, Legolas." Theli replied instead, "But now isn't the time to tell him so. Elrond, Galadriel, and probably even Celeborn are all telling our Aran what they think he should do, and you know as well as I that Thranduil HATES that." Theli had gotten himself banished over having told Thranduil what to do, once. Just to Lothlorien and it was really more of an exile, but it had been memorable, all the same. Now Theli did his best to keep a hold of his tongue, around Thranduil, even though he loved his King and rather thought of the great elf as a friend as well as leader.

"I know that, I do." Legolas began, before becoming distracted by a thought, "Oh, and not Celeborn."

"No?" Theli frowned.

"No. Evidently my cousin of the Golden Wood hates dwarves. A lot. Some historic matter."

Theli shrugged, a vulgar habit he'd picked up from spending too much time amongst humans. Celeborn was both great and fair, but Theli knew well that he could be a bit difficult when he had it in his mind that he didn't like someone, or something. "But still, Legolas. Having Galadriel write your father at all is usually enough to put the King in a mood for at least part of a day. And to have Elrond, whom he normally counts a friend as well as kinsman, have agreed with her, and for them both to be sticking their noses into what Thranduil views, quite reasonably, as none of their affair...Legolas, by the forest spirits, GIVE HIM A FEW DAYS before you go about advocating him helping the Wizard's exiled dwarven friends.

Legolas raised his chin, determined and seeming almost lit from within by his faith in the rightness of his cause. "You don't like having a dragon for a neighbor, either, Theli. And you especially don't like the constant threat that it poses to the men of Esgaroth. They were our allies, once, and even the dwarves were, well..."

"Not 'completely neutral,' but at least once or twice, like so in our favor?" Theli offered, a flicker of a smile moving across his face as he remembered a large mine car full of rocks having once fallen on top of a troll.

"Yes, that." Legolas agreed. "And if even a HALFLING is going to face the dragon, as Elrohir says, then I can't see why we elven warriors of the Greenwood shouldn't offer some succor, as well. To guide them through the forest, at least. Otherwise their 'noble quest' is going to end in a spider's belly."

Theli shrugged again. He agreed, but matters of state were beyond him.

"You're supposed to be one of Adar's advisors, Theli." Legolas gently reproved.

Theli wondered how this less than 500 hundred year old child could possibly have grown so old, and so noble, so fast. But still... "Legolas, give it a few days, at least. Better yet, a few weeks."

"But we may not have the time!" Legolas protested, "The patrols nearest Esgaroth must be notified, and the borders watched. And besides..."

Theli snorted. "Do you know how long it takes to travel from Imladris to our borders?"

Legolas paused, and then threw out a number. Mathematically, if one were to presuppose an elf who knew where he was going, it wasn't a bad guess.

"Add at least two weeks to that." Theli suggested, "Dwarves have short legs. And given the halfling, perhaps another week. If Mithrandir gets distracted, then add a month." And Mithrandir could get very distracted, that Theli knew from experience.

"Oh." Legolas sighed in relief. "There should be time, then."

"Yes." Theli agreed, "There should be time." And if there wasn't, he hoped for the strength and patience to deal with his King and his Prince, who had been quite a trial since they'd begun lately to take different sides on 'the human question.' Theli couldn't entirely blame Thranduil - some human had almost certainly been responsible for telling the Enemy's creatures where to find their Queen and Thranduil's older heirs, at the end of the Watchful Peace. And some human had most likely been responsible for the smaller-scale disaster which had put an end to the formal alliance between the humans of Long Lake and the Elves of the Wood.

But if Thranduil was going to stake his arguments on the past and his pique, however justified, then Legolas was going to continue to lobby against that. Greenwood could become very loud, and strained. Not divided, though, not for most. Legolas was a promising young officer and a dutiful, calm, reassuring heir, but Thranduil was the warrior King who had held the Greenwood through almost two thousand years of siege. But for Theli personally...he was Thranduil's elf, yes. But he was Legolas' elf, too. And he was a bit afraid of the position that might put him in, if matters unfolded as he feared rather than as he hoped.

But that was not this night's worry. Theli put his prince to bed with a healing draught that should also bring sleep, and more reassurances that all would be better in the morning. For his own part, Theli sought out the practice hall which Legolas had abandoned. He picked up the heaviest of the practice blades, and began to move through the most complicated routine he thought he could handle. Theli was a better healer than a fighter, but perhaps it was time, again, to consider being both.

5


End file.
